A Different Path
by araanne
Summary: A/U: Claire Gordon comes home to find a strange man in her mothers house, what is he doing there, and what can she do about it?


**Title**: **A Different Path**  
**Author**: Araanne  
**Pairing**: Sylar/Claire  
**Rating**: PG  
**Disclaimer**: Do not own Heroes, just taking the characters out for a short spin  
**Warnings**: none.  
**Summary**: written for elizchris, prompt will follow story  
**Author's Note**: **a very large thank you to my beta, dustyashes**

She knew her mom wasn't home before she even pulled into the driveway. Meredith Gordon was the sales manager for Primatech Paper in Odessa Texas, and she was very good at her job. They sent her all over the state to different locations, training people. Sometimes she was gone for weeks at a time. Claire knew that she was welcome to bring her laundry to her mom's house once a week to clean, whether Meredith was home or not.

With a sigh, Claire hopped out of her car and pulled her bag of clothes from the back of her car. Slinging the bag over her shoulder, she walked up the paved path to the porch and quickly opened the door.

The farther she got into the house, the more she felt as tough somebody was watching her. She shook the feeling off with the fact that the front door had been locked when she arrived, and she had made sure to relock the door behind her. She proceeded into the house with her laundry and set the bag down in front of a door in the kitchen. Claire quickly sorted out the clothes and put in her first load.

Turning to get herself a drink, Claire stopped in shock. A man was leaning against the kitchen island. He had to be at least a good foot taller than she was. He had deep brown eyes that stared out from underneath bushy eyebrows. The smirk on his face made her step backwards out of fear, causing her to run into the washer.

"Well, hello there," he spoke softly but menacingly. "You must be..." he paused for a moment in concentration. "Claire."

The way he said her name caused a shiver of fear to run down her spine. She opened her mouth, but sound refused to come out. She glanced around her, desperately trying to find a way out. Her eyes were darting back and forth between the dark man and the back door. It was much closer to her than he was. She could make it, she was sure she could make it; she had to at least try.

"Don't even think about it," the man growled. He tensed, as though he was preparing for her move.

Claire took a deep breath in, and then she made a fast attempt to get out through the back door. She had barely made it two steps, before her body came to a stop on its own. Her eyes widened in fear and she could hear him moving behind her. But try as she might, she could not seem to make her body turn around.

"Now, now," he spoke softly and directly into her ear. "You should have listened to my warning."

"H-how are you doing this?" Claire demanded. Her voice barely above a whisper.

"It's an ability," he quietly answered. His face was so close to hers that she cold feel him smirk. "One of my many abilities. But you wold know all about special abilities, wouldn't you, Claire?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Claire insisted softly.

"You're not lying," his voice sounded very surprised. "How is it your mother has kept you from knowing the truth?" He began walking around her, trailing a hand over her skin.

"My mother wouldn't hide anything from me," Claire ground out.

"Poor little Princess," the man spoke into her other ear. "Has no idea what she's capable of. Let's take a look at your file then, shall we?"

He moved around so he was in front of her again. He had a file folder in his hands. He opened the folder and scanned silently over its content.

"Who are you?" Claire demanded.

"Haven't introduced myself yet?" he said with a smirk. "Call me Sylar. Now let's see here, Claire Gordon. Says here your trick is called Rapid Cellular Regeneration. Tell me Claire, when is the last time you hurt yourself, or were even sick?"

Claire froze in shock as she realized that he was right. He chuckled softly and released his hold on her. Her entire body went lax and she almost fell to the ground, stumbling forward a few steps before she spun around and put her back up against the door. Her eyes were wide as she stared up at him.

He grabbed a knife from the open dishwasher and approached her. "Let's test that ability, shall we?"

"N-no," Claire stuttered out as Sylar approached her with the knife. "Please don't hurt me."

"Don't worry, it won't hurt for long." Sylar spoke softly and advanced on her.

"Please," Claire practically begged him. She flattened her body against the door.

He grabbed her hand and made a quick slice across her palm. Claire screamed out in pain as the blood bubbled up and dripped onto the floor. Sylar wiped his sleeve across her palm. Claire stared in shock as the slice in her palm quickly knitted back together not even leaving a scar, or any mark to show she had been cut at all.

He stepped back and let her sink to the floor in shock. She held her hand up, it was still tinged red from the blood. She traced her fingers over the area where the slice had been only moments before. Tears ran down her face and she looked up at him.

"How did you know I could do that?" Claire demanded quietly.

He silently sat on the floor beside her and passed the folder over to her. With fear still clear in her eyes, she accepted the folder. Their fingers lightly brushed together as the folder changed hands causing a small spark to pass between them. Claire pulled the folder quickly into her lap, a blush cover her face. Sylar just looked amused.

Claire opened the folder and found her name, birth date and a picture from High School. On the second page was an approximate list of times her mother had her mind wiped. Something that was codenamed, Haitian. By the time she had finished reading, tears were once again running down her face.

"How could she keep this from me?" Claire practically whispered.

"You really didn't know?" Sylar looked confused now. How was it this unbreakable girl had never been hurt or cut before without her mother being aware.

"No," she whimpered.

Before he could second guess himself, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him. That seemed to open a dam and she began to sob in earnest. He looked down to see her tiny hands clutching his shirt as the sobs wracked her small frame.

"If she lied and hid something like this from me, how much more was a lie?" Claire muttered so softly he could barely hear her.

"I don't know," he answered honestly. There was something about this strange woman in his arms. It felt very right to have her there. In the years since he had discovered his own ability he had become a loner. His Intuitive Aptitude made it easy to fix things and assimilate others powers, but his Company that had been following him for the past few months made him out to be a monster. That was because of the Agent in charge of his case, Meredith Gordon. He had come here to kill her. But instead of finding the trained Agent, he found her 20-year-old daughter.

Sylar had no idea why she was hiding abilities from her own daughter, especially when she herself was a firestarter. With Claire having an ability like regeneration, it would be impossible to hid it from her forever. One day she would realize that she wasn't aging, and then what? He looked down at the small woman in his arms and felt at peace for the first time in years. She turned her head to look up at him through bright green eyes that were shining from her tears.

A wave of emotion flooded though Claire that was so strong she would have collapsed if she had been standing. She raised her hands and clutched onto his shoulders. A confused and concentrated look crossed his face and then his eyes actually glowed for a split second before a smirk crossed his face.

"I have your power," Sylar whispered softly. He tilted his head to the side as he stared down at her. He raised a hand and weaved his fingers through her hair. "You are remarkably east for me to understand." He moved his hands to cup her face.

Was he going to kiss her? And more importantly was she just going to let a man who had broken into her mothers house kiss her? But he had shown her the truth of what she was, and that she wasn't alone. So many questions flitted through her mind as their faces grew closer together.

Who was Sylar?

Why had he been waiting in her mothers house?

What would happen next?

But as his lips pressed against hers, she realized that at that moment, nothing else was really important. Not right now. The whole world faded around them as she returned his gentle kiss, causing him to deepen it almost reflexively. Whatever the future had planned for them, they would be ready.

Prompt: Claire Gordon's spunky single mom travels a lot since she works in sales for a paper company. Think Texas Gilmore Girls with a bunch of weird rules about what can be said out loud. One day when Claire comes home from school there's this creepy guy with eyebrows who wants to kill her mom. What's a girl to do?


End file.
